Tag Archives: Japanese inspired

Japanese and Asian inspired fabrics are more easily found in stores now as well as online, or maybe I am just paying more attention to them more than I used to. Beautiful prints with metallic accents are so appealing to me. I have several pieces that I received from a friend before she passed, and I wanted to use them in a manner that she used to do. She would make art quilts by taking panels or yardage, splitting it up, and sewing framing into the picture in various sizes. Taking that idea, I applied the Japanese preference for odd numbers, and a framing fabric that reminds me of the bamboo screens in homes. I began with this wonderful fabric of cherry blossoms and a night sky. I had two pieces of it.

I wanted the art piece to only have one moon, so I cut the fabric into a large piece and several smaller ones, cutting the first piece as large as possible.

I continued cutting around the other moon motifs, leaving as much of the cherry blossoms as possible.

When I had all the pieces, I arranged them on the floor to figure out the best design. The fabric is a one-way design and I needed to be sure I didn’t get any upside down.

When I was happy with the placement, I labeled each piece, trying to figure out the best order to sew them.

Making a diagram helped. The pieces marked 2c,d and e ended up being pushed up higher, and 3 was wider than my original design idea. But, this was a good idea of how the bits went together once I had them laid out on the floor.

Then, using the same procedure as putting on borders, I cut each sashing strip one at a time.

I sewed it between the two pieces it was meant for.

Then, after pressing the seams, the pieces were laid out again so the next step of construction would be easier to see. Here you can see that row 1 needs to be sewn to row two, before the piece on the right can be added, and that the right edge of row 1 needs to be trimmed.

I did that, and made sure the next piece was the proper length by measuring and trimming just a bit before sewing.

The assembled top part was just a bit too big for the third piece going across the bottom. I measured and trimmed the top piece to match, then added the sashing strip.

Row 4 was one piece as well, and it was the same width as the #3 piece. So, they were sewn together.

All pieced, the next thing was to add the same one-inch wide sashing to the outside of the piece to complete the frame.

Then I added this gorgeous Oriental style metallic gold on black border. I liked how it picks up the gold on black branches of the cherry trees.

All assembled and ready for quilting. The cherry blossoms seem to flow and fall from one panel to the next.

I am naming this quilt Sakura Tsuki which means Cherry Blossom Moon.

For this project, I am excited to tell you that there will be a giveaway!! Quilter’s Dream is offering a giveaway prize of a queen-size Dream Orient bamboo blend batting. Quilter’s Dream Orient Batting is a soft blend of Bamboo, silk, tencel from eucalyptus and cotton with a beautifully silky drape. It is machine washable in cool water, and can be put in an air fluff dryer cycle. Very stable, it can be quilted at 8″ apart. It is light in weight and seems like it would be perfect for summer quilts.

Enter with the Rafflecopter link below, there are seven chances to enter by sharing, visiting Facebook pages, and commenting. This giveaway is only open to those with a US shipping address as the company ships directly to the winner and has placed that restriction. Please forgive me if I cannot personally respond to all the entries on this giveaway as I usually do, it will depend on how many comments are posted. Please know that I read and appreciate each and every one. The entries close on February 17th.

While we are on the subject of Rafflecopter Giveaways, the winner of the Margaret Goes Modern book giveaway from last Sunday is Sheila O who left this blog post comment – “I haven’t read anything, except a couple quilt how tos and magazines. Too busy quilting 😀”. Hopefully a book of short stories will be easier to read for this busy quilter. And one more note, the first winner chosen was disqualified as she clicked on the “I commented” button, but didn’t leave a comment on the blog post. You can leave the comment before or after clicking on that entry method, but the comment does have to be there when the entry period ends and the drawing is held.

I thought this art quilt was the perfect time to try the Dream Orient. I have loaded the quilt on the frame, and this batting is soft and has a lovely drape, I cannot wait to begin quilting it. More on that later. The pretty print on the right in the pic above is the backing for this quilt.

Have you done any quilting with Oriental inspired fabrics? Have you ever used Dream Orient batting?

Are you a planner? I have to confess that I am not much of one anymore. After spending many years in the business world and the medical field, using complex planners to keep track of appointments, travel arrangements, goals and objectives, this is the last thing I want to do now. For me, quilting, cooking, gardening, reading, and blogging are fun and I do not want to turn it into goals and deadlines. But last year, I did just a short overall goal list as part of an linkup for the new year. Here’s the list from last year with links to the some of the posts and projects from this past year too, and an overall plan for 2018, subject to adjustment, LOL!!

Goal 5 – Do another Autumn event, encompassing a wide variety of projects heavy on the quilting and sewing, with gardening, cooking, reading, crafting, card making, thrifting and recycling, and more thrown in for fun. – done, Autumn Jubilee took the entire month of October in the second year of this event.

There were prizes almost every single post which included a quilt-along free pattern for Stars on Autumn Lane, …

For the coming year, I do have a few goals. First, I want finish writing the the Scrap Dance Two-Step pattern, get the final testing done and publish the pattern.

In the middle of last year I decided to do a special charity event, with donations and cards made for the Safelight domestic violence shelter. The response to The Safelight Project from readers was truly inspiring, and the bags we made together were so appreciated. More cards and small gift bags were done for Christmas, you can see HERE. I have an idea for a Summer Fun bag for this year’s project that will need Sunglasses cases made, if you can use up some scraps and sew a few. If you are a card maker, I’ll need a lot of summer fun cards with inspirational messages inside. More on this a bit later, as I am still in the process of working out some details.

There will be a new Scrap Dance mystery, and I am working on that design now. I want to do something different each year, help us learn a new skill or way of doing elements like last year’s quarter-square triangles. This next one will have something new too! I have figured out how to do it easier than anything I found in online tutorials, and how to integrate it into a step process for the mystery. I will promise that it will again be scrappy, as my thing is to use up the bits and pieces you have left over. No cutting into new fabric with the anxiety of maybe not liking the end product. After all, just using up scraps doesn’t require a huge commitment, and you can give it to charity if you end up wishing it was different. This picture is the finish of Scrap Dance Tango from 2015, now available in my Craftsy store. Links to the patterns are on my sidebar (smartphone users, scroll down past the comments to see the sidebar info and links). I would like your input as to which day of the month you like best for the posts, last year it was the third Friday.

In February, I am planning to do several posts in an event that will be Japanese inspired. I have been a bit obsessed with Japanese things lately – food, gardens, quilting and sewing, origami and more. This beautiful meal was served to me at Sora’s in Pisgah Forest. If you think you wouldn’t like sushi, know that there wasn’t anything raw in this one other than avocado. I figured out that salad too, very different and delicious.

So I’ll be sharing some projects and recipes along with garden visits. I have some beautiful Japanese print fabrics to play with, and several ideas on how to use them.

Lastly, I hope to be able to do the third annual Autumn Jubilee. I actually already have a couple of commitments for prizes for the event, now I just need to come up with three new designs (1 quilting, 1 sewing, 1 wool stitching), a new recipe and more crafting projects. The Autumn Tablescapes are the easy part.

I am joining the link up going on at Quilting Jetgirl’s 2018 Planning Party with some fun prizes to win. I am delighted to be a part of that, and will have two patterns to give away as part of Yvonne’s event. Her link up is open for a few more days, and I have my eye on the Aurifil thread. As much as I have been privileged to be a blog where Aurifil sponsors giveaways, I’ve never won any for myself. I do buy a lot though, LOL!!! Plus I’ll be linking with Cheryl’s Best of 2017 Linky. Buttons on the sidebar.

Beyond that, we’ll see. I promise to continue showing the variety of subjects you have come to know as part of my blog, quilting and sewing, free patterns and quilt alongs, tips and tutorials, travel and mountain living, crafting and stamping, cooking and gardening, tablescapes and decorating, reading and more.

Won’t you come with me for fun next year at From My Carolina Home? You can follow by email by using the sidebar sign up, or Bloglovin using the sidebar link. If you are a Facebook user, follow From My Carolina Home Facebook page. I like interacting with readers too, and you can put your pictures on our Flickr Group for the quilt alongs and projects, and on my new From My Carolina Home Project Sharing Facebook group too. This new group is for anything and everything inspired by my posts, sharing of projects and quilt alongs, sew alongs and stitch alongs, your tablescapes and gardens, and any project inspired by my blog.

What day of the month would you like to see the steps for the Scrap Dance Mystery Quilt steps next year, for example third Friday, or another week and day, or a specific day like the 10th of each month no matter what day of the week it falls?

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